The Prohibition era in America, which lasted for well over a decade and—inconceivable as it might be today—effectively banned the sale and production of booze in the United States, ended with the ratification of the 21st Amendment on Dec. 5, 1933.

As renowned aerial photographer George Steinmetz documented the effects of the recent record-setting drought in the American South, he discovered that even in driest parts of the country, the cliched idea of the bowl of cracked earth and dust was neither common nor representative of the crisis.